1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf cart location display device that locates golf carts on a golf course.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, there are golf courses where a player plays golf while he moves a golf cart by himself.
In the case of the self-playing, the golf manager cannot grasp the crowded degree of a course and a delay in playing until a player returns to a clubhouse from the start tee. To avoid such situation, some golf courses have course guides posted every several holes to accelerate golf playing. The problem is that personnel expenses increase.
For example, Japanese Laid-open patent publication TOKKAI-HEI No. 9-31855 or 10-28504, previously filed by the present applicant, discloses the system consisting of means mounted on a golf cart, for transmitting and receiving cart identification signals such as cart Ids; sensors placed along the golf course being a golf cart route (near to e.g. tee ground, fairway, green and the like); and a management office which manages cart identification signals detected by a sensor.
The operation status of a golf cart on a golf course can be grasped by managing the current location of each cart, for example, the time detected by the sensor, based on cart identification signals and sensor identification signals, and then displaying it on a desired display.
In such operation, the location and the operation time of a golf cart can be grasped. However, the display mode of management data may be considered as follows:
FIG. 12 illustrates a window system wherein an operation status table is displayed on a display device of a personal computer.
On the window 70, golf cart numbers on a current course are shown in the cart number columns 71. The starting order of golf carts is vertically arranged.
The time display areas 72a, 72b, 72c, . . . are prepared. The time at which the sensor situated on a hole detects a golf cart, that is, the operation status thereof is displayed in each column. In the time display area 72(a, b, c, . . . ), xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d (tee ground) is the time at which the sensor situated near the tee ground detects a golf cart; xe2x80x9cF (Fairway)xe2x80x9d is the time at which the sensor situated near the fairway detects a golf cart; and xe2x80x9cG (Green)xe2x80x9d is the time at which the sensor situated near the green detects a golf cart. For example, xe2x80x9c8:35xe2x80x9d represents the time at which the No. 9 golf cart passed the fairway F near to No. 2 hole. The time display area 72c shows that the No. 9 golf cart has been currently detected on the green G of No. 3 hole.
The window shows that the No. 9 golf cart is engaged to a golfer playing on the green G of No. 3 hole or is on the way toward the tee ground of No. 4 hole after a completion of playing on the green of No. 3 hole.
As described above, since each of the golfs cart displays the time detected by the sensor corresponding to the tee ground T, fairway F or green G of each hole, the manager can grasp the play progress of a party using the golf cart.
The operation status of golf carts behind the No. 38 golf cart can be displayed on the window 70 by clicking the mouse and scrolling the display area.
The display area is scrolled downward or upward by selecting and clicking the scroll key 73a or 73b (not shown) on the scroll bar 73. For example, when you want to know the operation status of a golf cart advancing behind the No. 38 golf cart, the display area is scrolled down with the scroll key 73b. This scroll operation may be done by dragging upward or downward the scroll box 73c along the scroll bar 73.
The status of holes behind No. 4 hole can be selectively displayed by scrolling the display area leftward or rightward with the scroll keys 74a and 74b or the scroll box 73c on the scroll bar 74.
It is assumed that FIG. 12 illustrates the case where the window 70 displays the operation status of one course. However, an actual golf ground has plural courses. Regarding another displaying mode, FIG. 13 illustrates the display mode in which plural pieces of information corresponding to the plural courses are selectively displayed.
FIG. 13 shows the window 80 employing the so-called folder display mode. The operation status of a desired course can be displayed by selecting the tag 80a, 80b or 80c through a predetermined operation of a mouse. The window 80 of FIG. 13 is identical to the window 70 of FIG. 12. The active window shows, for example, the operations status of xe2x80x9cOUT coursexe2x80x9d. When the tag 80b is selected, the window 80 displays the operation status of xe2x80x9cIN coursexe2x80x9d. If the tag 80c is selected, the window 80 displays the operation course of xe2x80x9cxx coursexe2x80x9d.
In addition to the above numerical displaying method, it may be considered that the layout of golf courses in a golf ground are displayed as computer-graphics on the window 90 and that the locations of golf carts (represented with black dots) are displayed near a hole, as shown in FIG. 14. The relationships between locations of golf carts on each course can be easily grasped at a glance. In order to monitor the situation of holes other than the currently displayed holes, the corresponding display area is selected using the scroll bars 91 and 92. Regarding the scroll bars 91 and 92 and the scroll bars 73 and 74, the same numerical subscript represents the same function.
The case where operation information is displayed on the display of a computer has been described by referring to FIGS. 12, 13 and 14. Moreover, it may be considered that a relative large display 110 such as a liquid-crystal panel, as shown in FIG. 1, displays the image corresponding to the course layout and operation status created by the computer 100. This example has the advantage in that plural users can monitor the entire golf ground at the same time.
Most golf grounds generally contain 18 holes (2 courses), 28 holes (3 courses) and 36 holes (4 courses), in 9 hole-units. In the examples shown in FIGS. 12, 13 and 14, in order to simultaneously monitor the operation status of the entire courses of the golf ground, a desired operation status is displayed by selecting operating the scroll bars 73, 73, 91 and 92 or the tags 80a, 80b and 80c. For that reason, it has been difficult to the entire operation information on the same screen.
Moreover, in an operation of displaying the operation information of a golf course, it is difficult to display the operation information for nine holes including the No. 1 to No. 9 holes on the same screen. This requires the scroll operation.
That is, in the operation status monitoring operation, the selective manipulation of the scroll bars 73, 73, 79 and 79 or the tags 80a, 80b and 80c impairs the immediacy thus resulting in poor usability. This problem causes the golf ground administrator to involve in the operation management much time, thus delaying other work.
When the course layout of a golf ground is constructed as shown in FIG. 14, the relationships between cart locations can be easily grasped. However, the operation management system producer must develop the course layout to be suitable for each golf ground. Many efforts are required to deal with many golf grounds. Like the examples shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, when the layout of the golf ground is displayed on the monitor of a computer, as shown in FIG. 14, the volume of information to be displayed is confined.
The example shown in FIG. 5 enables to obtain a great volume of information from the same screen. However, the problem is that a special installation place is required to enlarge the display device.
The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problems.
Moreover, the objective of the invention is to provide a golf cart location display device that can more schematically display the operation status of golf carts using predetermined graphic information.
The objective of the present invention is achieved by a golf cart location display device, comprising receiving means for receiving identification information about each of golf carts moving within a golf course as well as information about a current location of a golf cart within the golf course; operation status table creating means for creating an operation status table on which the current location of the golf cart is displayed on a straight line; golf cart location creating means for superimposing character/graphic information about the moving status of a golf cart received by the receiving means with character/graphic information, on the line of the operation status table; and display means for displaying the operation status table as an image.
Moreover, according to the present invention, a golf cart location display device, comprises receiving means for receiving identification information about each of golf carts moving within a golf course as well as information about a current position of a golf cart within the golf course; operation status table creating means for creating an operation status table on which play progress of the golf cart is displayed as a bar graph; golf cart location creating means for superimposing information about play progress related to the golf cart received by the receiving means with character/graphic information, on the operation status table; and display means for displaying the operation status table as an image.
In the golf cart location display device according to the present invention, time information corresponding to the play progress information shown in the bar graph is displayed at a position corresponding to the bar graph.
Hence, the present invention can more schematically display the operation status of golf carts using predetermined graphic information. This allows the operation status of the entire course to be grasped within a narrow window area, compared with the numerical display of play hours or the layout display of a golf ground. In other words, the monitor of a personal computer can display the operation status of the entire course on the same screen. Moreover, since the operation status of the entire course can be visually displayed graphically, it can be understood easily and intuitively.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a golf cart location display device comprises receiving means for receiving identification information about each of golf carts moving within a golf course as well as information about a current location of a golf cart with the golf course; operation status table creating means for creating an operation status table containing play progress information or information about current location information of said golf cart; golf cart location creating means for displaying information about arrival of the golf cart received by the receiving means, on display columns of the operation status table, and for flashing or displaying in a different display color a display column for the next spot when the golf cart does not receive current location arrival information for a predetermined period of time; and display means for displaying the operation status table as an image.
Moreover, according to the present invention, a golf cart location display device comprises receiving means for receiving identification information about each of golf carts moving within a golf course as well as information about a current location of a golf cart within the golf course; operation status table creating means for creating an operation status table on which play progress of the golf cart is displayed as a bar graph and on which a display column for the next spot is flashed or displayed in a different display color when the golf cart does not receive current location arrival information for a predetermined period of time; golf cart location creating means for superimposing information about play progress of the golf cart received by the receiving means with character/graphic information, on the operation status table; and display means for displaying the operation status table as an image.
As described above, the present invention can distinctively display the status in play and the status in movement toward the next spot (position) after playing, thus resulting in finer control.